Like robins perched in your backyard tree or the buds of flowers emerging in your garden, the ping of an aluminum bat hitting a softball or the thud of a baseball popping into a catcher's mitt are among the first signs of spring.

But those sights and sounds of spring aren't quite the same when they're taking place inside a high school gymnasium.

Yet, that's what was happening all across the Lehigh Valley on Monday when practice for the spring sports season officially began.

Mounds of snow covered the fields and courts where, eventually, softball, baseball and lacrosse games will take place along with boys tennis matches. And at many places, the track and field participants had to run around hallways instead of those giant ovals that ring football stadiums.

Typically, athletic directors were scrambling to find alternate locations for their teams to get in workouts and stagger schedules so everybody who needed to get in some work could find a two-hour block of time in an appropriate facility.

At places like Central Catholic and Parkland, the schedules are even more muddled because they have both girls and boys basketball teams still alive in the state basketball playoffs, and swimming and wrestling teams still competing before the winter sports schedule is officially complete.

"We're using five different gyms in our school district and blocking off seven hours of time from like to 3 to 10 so everybody can get in their work," Whitehall athletic director Bob Hartman said.

Starting practice inside is nothing new for the spring sports coaches, and with more snow in the forecast later this week, they have to plan to be indoors for the rest of this week and perhaps all of next week as well until Mother Nature decides to do her spring cleaning.

"In all of the years I've been doing this, I think there's only been a couple of times when we were able to get outside on time," said John Eyer, who is beginning his 16th season as Emmaus High's softball coach. "You just have to adjust.

"We'll do a lot of drill work and work on fundamentals. We'll hit some balls in the gym, but most of the time I'll be rolling the balls to them so they can get their form down and into the right throwing position and so on. That's really all you can do."

Eyer and many of the girls were packed in tightly into a netted area on the side of Emmaus' auxiliary gym while the boys volleyball team was practicing on the other side of the net. He sent some of his outfield candidates outside to the parking lot where they could practice catching fly balls.

"You've got to get them outside, even if it's cold, because they have to see some fly balls because it's part of the game," Eyer said. "It's frustrating for the girls, especially the longer you're in the gym. You try to … make it more interesting for them. Sometimes you even play some different games.

"But I don't know when we're going to get on our practice field. It has 8 inches of snow on it right now. Things could change and it could warm up, and you get some wind to dry the field off, but it's going to take some time. We have a scrimmage scheduled for the 14th, but I doubt that's going to happen."

The first playing date for baseball and softball is March 20. League games in the Colonial League and Eastern Pennsylvania Conference are scheduled to begin March 23.

The Whitehall baseball and softball teams will take their annual spring-training trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to get their seasons started, and Parkland's softball team is headed to Florida to begin its season.

Most programs, however, have to battle the conditions as well as opposing teams. Even when the snow clears, there's a good chance the chilly temperatures will linger deep into April, if not May.

With both leagues expanding their baseball and softball playoffs, there's a tighter window to get regular-season games completed. And that will put more demands on the area's athletic directors to get games scheduled and played promptly.

"We just do the best we can as athletic directors, and the coaches are doing the best they can," Hartman said. "We have resilient coaches and kids who will make the best of it.

"In this first week of practice, most coaches are trying to make their evaluations and deciding their rosters. Everybody's in batting cages inside gyms, and it's not ideal, but everybody's in the same boat."

Northwestern athletic director Jason Zimmerman doesn't have as many teams to worry about in the spring as Parkland, Emmaus and Whitehall. The Tigers don't have lacrosse or tennis teams, but he admits the situation isn't ideal.

"We're actually better off than we were at this time last year," Zimmerman said. "There was much more snow on the ground at this point. The first time we got out on the field last year was the first day of competition, and I never thought that was going to happen. People just have to be patient. We'll get there."

Geisel said he was in charge of maintenance in the Parkland School District in 1993 when the area got pounded with nearly 2 feet of snow March 13.

"We'll deal with this," he said. "We have to remind all of our coaches that it's still high school sports. It's not like Major League Baseball, where we have to be ready to go where people are paying to see us. This is about getting kids involved in athletics and having fun. It's not life and death. It's not like we're going to lose money if we don't play together. You just have to work together and get out when you can."